In recent years, communication systems, such as IP phones, using a packet network such as a VoIP network, have been widely used. In this case, in order to maintain communication quality in the packet network, such as the VoIP network, it is important to preliminarily verify a communication status in the event the communication load is increased.
Such a communication status can be preliminarily verified in such a manner that communication statuses corresponding to various communication loads are preliminarily retained as base data, and a communication status of VoIP communication or the like between users is compared to the base data. Thereby, an onset of communication quality deterioration can be detected, and quality deterioration can be predicted.
As an example, a method for verifying a communication status for use as base data is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2005-184471 (“patent publication”, herebelow). According to the method, the load of a communications device is varied, and the reaction of the communications device is measured across a packet communications network.
However, various inconveniences take place when the method for measuring the status of a communications device described in JP-A-2005-184471 is adapted to measure a communication status of a communication link set in a packet network. In that system, the communication status of the communication link is measured in the manner that the load on the communications device described in the publication is set as a load on the communication link, and the load on the communication link is measured by being varied.
In the case of the method described in JP-A-2005-184471, a processing load is imposed on the communications device, so that the method does not influence other communications devices as well as the communication link and communication network. However, the method imposes a communication load on a communication link, which can cause adverse effects on other communication, such as communication failure on in-operation communication services.
An object of the present invention is to provide a network load detection system, method, apparatus, and program for detecting a network load by imposing burst loads on an in-operation communication link without causing adverse effects on other communications, such as communication failure on in-operation communication services.